First Spin Impressions

[Geoff]

Safe Haven - s/t ; wow, this got me on the wrong day and just pissed me off. Firstly, the artwork is atrocious. It is so shithouse I want to burn it. Verscera is not the best vocalist on his best day, but singing bad material here he just sounds absolutely terrible. The guitarist cannot play and he cannot write songs - I hate to be that blunt, but it's the truth. Musicianship is weak as hell and the songs are about as contrived and passion-free as I've ever heard. Just a poor, poor AOR disc. Hated it.

 

haha don't use that as your ebay blurb when you try and sell it

Really? Did it come off sounding like I didn't like it?

 

Stage Dolls - 'Soldier's gun' ; Okay. Half filler, half pretty decent. Glad it's in the collection, and for only us$10 in the NEH sales... so I'll take it. But not real good at all to be totally honest. I'd hate to have paid big bucks for it.

 

State of Mind - 'Memory Lane' ; oh man, just boring. Well played, I like Conny Lind... but I don't know about this. I remember when this came out my love for Amaze Me forced me to listen to samples about 80 times before finally just saying it wasn't going to happen. Fast forward 5 years and I pick it up for eu$2.72 and can understand my hesitance 5 years ago. It's okay, but just too average to hold a permanent place in my collection, I dare say.

[TIM (2)]

Stage Dolls - 'Soldier's gun' ; Okay. Half filler, half pretty decent. Glad it's in the collection, and for only us$10 in the NEH sales... so I'll take it. But not real good at all to be totally honest. I'd hate to have paid big bucks for it.

 

Yeah "Commando's" was the same. Ultra-rare but nothing more than nice/decent AOR.

[heaven&hell]

Foreigner - Can't Slow Down

 

While I've never been a huge Foreigner fan I mostly bought this for Kelly Hansen and Jeff Pilson's involvement but damn if this isn't a very good album and maybe one of the top releases of the year. Every song is great and while they could of rocked a little more it's hard to see any Foreigner fan being dissapointed with this. Also the 2nd disc of remixed old songs are good to but would of prefered if they'd re-recorded them with Kelly singing. The 3rd disc is a dvd of performances and behind the scenes interviews that is pretty cool and the live version of "Starrider" is awesome IMO. All of this for $12.99.

[Geoff]

Stateline - s/t ; Very nice release from this year, well worth checking out. I liked the ballsier sound of the first 4 songs (from 1990) the most. The two single tracks in the middle from 1987 are pretty good and despite a weaker production and some pretty bad keys, the last 4 songs from back in 1986 are all pretty good too, especially the one about dreaming. Overall, good collection of songs. I had the feeling the whole time that the vocalist was pretty good, but never really sounded that good on any of the productions.

 

Gasline Queen - 'Fuel for rock n' roll' ; Not all bad in places. Production and song quality varies quite a bit, but there's some pretty decent LA Guns styled rock here. Not bad, not essential at all though.

 

Guardian - 'The yellow and black attack is back' ; another not too bad one. The lyrics are so painful, but these versions of the songs are pretty good. Yeah, I didn't mind it at all.

 

Hawk Nelson - 'Life life loud' ; these guys have recorded the same album again. A whole heap of shit almost like Green Day with a couple of nice commercial rockers. Again, I'll cut the melodic tracks (2-3) and destroy the rest of the album.

[Geoff]

Straight Wired - 'Color my world' ; this is about the only Kivel release I had not heard up till today, and I guess it was the funk comparisons that kept me away. Well, after seeing it for $10 in the NEH sales I decided to give it a go... and I'm glad I did. Sure there are a few fillers (all the more funk related tunes) but there are actually some really cool tunes, like 'Gently', 'Airplane' and 'Johnny' to name a few. Luckily, despite some average verses, they do seem to have a love for nice melodic choruses, which saves the day on many occasions. Good disc.

[Glen]

Nocturnal Rites - 'New world messiah'

Boring as batshit. I think this must be the last album in this repetitive more metallic style which I find very unexciting before they grew to something I like. Glad I got this cheap.

 

You listen to me more often. I did tell you to just get the last 2 ;-))

[Geoff]

Nocturnal Rites - 'New world messiah'

Boring as batshit. I think this must be the last album in this repetitive more metallic style which I find very unexciting before they grew to something I like. Glad I got this cheap.

 

You listen to me more often. I did tell you to just get the last 2 ;-))

Yeah, and I love them. I guess I was just hopeful they carried over some of that goodness into early work. But they didn't.

 

Holy Water - 'The Collected Sessions' ; This is okay. It's not great and a real mixed bag, but it wasn't bad. I really love the track 'If I Knew Then', especially the first version of it on the CD.

 

Idle Sons - 'Sixteen seasons' ; decent modern rock. Not bad, but pretty forgettable to be honest.

 

Jay Miles - '9 hours' ; Really not a bad disc at all. Very soft, but some pretty damn nice tunes and cool lyrics. Yeah, not bad at all.

 

Jon Waite - 'Mask of smiles' ; oh man, I just love this dude. I really need to pick up all these CDs in original format. Loved this from start to end.

 

Kamera - 'X-Posure' ; a big surprise. I have no idea who these guys are but this was a very good melodic rock CD from start to end. Great surprise.

 

Kill Hannah - 'Wake up the sleepers' ; not sure about this one at all. I actually really, really like their last CD - 'Until there's nothing left'. If you ask me, it's like a better, more melodic version of what a lot of these Finnish bands are all doing these days. The "goth" element has always been there in the background, but I thought the previous 2 discs were more just good modern melodic rock. This one ventures into more electronic sounds and the vocals are a bit harder to handle this time round if you're not a fan of the band. Also, this is their gothiest sounding album yet. I'm not sold at all, but I also don't hate it. Nowhere near as good as 'Until there's nothing left'... that's for sure.

[Geoff]

Native Window - s/t ; Ouch. This was awful. Boring as hell.

 

LA Guns - 'Wasted' ; pretty bad. Glad he used his voice for something as marvelous as Steel Panther as this was going nowhere. Just further proof that LA Guns are nothing without Phil Lewis.

 

Mentake - s/t ; decent modern rock, very much like early 00's bands like Familiar 48 and Lifehouse. Not great, but decent.

[Geoff]

Magnum - 'Into the valley of the moonking' ; Man, this is pretty dreadful. I'm no Magnum expert, but does this still even sound like Magnum at all? Even the vocals just sounded off to me. The whole thing was just ugly.

 

Manic Drive - 'Blue' ; Interesting CD. Some real trash on here, but before I could discard it there were these pretty sweet ballads that kept popping up. I'll definitely be tearing this album apart on my Ipod, but I think I'll get a couple of nice songs off it.

 

Scars of Tomorrow - 'No more goodbyes' ; Another pretty decent modern rock offering. Not special enough to stand out from the pack, though.

 

Paramore - 'Brand new eyes' ; Well, looks like Tim is actually right with this one. I wouldn't say it's awful... it's just nothing. No truly dreadful songs, but on the other hand there's nothing great either. 'Turn it off' is definitely the best song off it and I like that one, but aside from that it's just a pretty boring CD. There is no doubt they have declined considerably with each CD.

[phaffas]

Paramore - 'Brand new eyes' ; Well, looks like Tim is actually right with this one. I wouldn't say it's awful... it's just nothing. No truly dreadful songs, but on the other hand there's nothing great either. 'Turn it off' is definitely the best song off it and I like that one, but aside from that it's just a pretty boring CD. There is no doubt they have declined considerably with each CD.

 

Didnt even know they had a new one? And not even Paramore's hot lil fan Timbo likes it???

 

 

So Paramore and Damone have gone to craps..

[Geoff]

Paramore - 'Brand new eyes' ; Well, looks like Tim is actually right with this one. I wouldn't say it's awful... it's just nothing. No truly dreadful songs, but on the other hand there's nothing great either. 'Turn it off' is definitely the best song off it and I like that one, but aside from that it's just a pretty boring CD. There is no doubt they have declined considerably with each CD.

 

Didnt even know they had a new one? And not even Paramore's hot lil fan Timbo likes it???

 

 

So Paramore and Damone have gone to craps..

Pretty much. I think this is slightly better than the new Damone CD, but I can't even say for sure. Both are infinitely underwhelming. Halestorm kicks both their asses.

[TIM (2)]

Paramore - 'Brand new eyes' ; Well, looks like Tim is actually right with this one. I wouldn't say it's awful... it's just nothing. No truly dreadful songs, but on the other hand there's nothing great either. 'Turn it off' is definitely the best song off it and I like that one, but aside from that it's just a pretty boring CD. There is no doubt they have declined considerably with each CD.

 

Didnt even know they had a new one? And not even Paramore's hot lil fan Timbo likes it???

 

 

So Paramore and Damone have gone to craps..

 

Yeah the Paramore's not great at all - and the ballads are really bad. Her voice sounds great and the production is killer, but after a few decent opening songs this thing just tails off spectacularly. Not even close to the last album IMO.

[phaffas]

Paramore - 'Brand new eyes' ; Well, looks like Tim is actually right with this one. I wouldn't say it's awful... it's just nothing. No truly dreadful songs, but on the other hand there's nothing great either. 'Turn it off' is definitely the best song off it and I like that one, but aside from that it's just a pretty boring CD. There is no doubt they have declined considerably with each CD.

 

Didnt even know they had a new one? And not even Paramore's hot lil fan Timbo likes it???

 

 

So Paramore and Damone have gone to craps..

Pretty much. I think this is slightly better than the new Damone CD, but I can't even say for sure. Both are infinitely underwhelming. Halestorm kicks both their asses.

Is the Paramore girl still some weeny lil emo lezo mole?

[Geoff]

Paramore - 'Brand new eyes' ; Well, looks like Tim is actually right with this one. I wouldn't say it's awful... it's just nothing. No truly dreadful songs, but on the other hand there's nothing great either. 'Turn it off' is definitely the best song off it and I like that one, but aside from that it's just a pretty boring CD. There is no doubt they have declined considerably with each CD.

 

Didnt even know they had a new one? And not even Paramore's hot lil fan Timbo likes it???

 

 

So Paramore and Damone have gone to craps..

 

Yeah the Paramore's not great at all - and the ballads are really bad. Her voice sounds great and the production is killer, but after a few decent opening songs this thing just tails off spectacularly. Not even close to the last album IMO.

Yeah, I agree about the production. Listening to the first song I actually thought it was going to be really good as it sounded awesome. But yeah, lacking the songs and I fully agree about the ballads too. Just boring...

[phaffas]

Paramore - 'Brand new eyes' ; Well, looks like Tim is actually right with this one. I wouldn't say it's awful... it's just nothing. No truly dreadful songs, but on the other hand there's nothing great either. 'Turn it off' is definitely the best song off it and I like that one, but aside from that it's just a pretty boring CD. There is no doubt they have declined considerably with each CD.

 

Didnt even know they had a new one? And not even Paramore's hot lil fan Timbo likes it???

 

 

So Paramore and Damone have gone to craps..

 

Yeah the Paramore's not great at all - and the ballads are really bad. Her voice sounds great and the production is killer, but after a few decent opening songs this thing just tails off spectacularly. Not even close to the last album IMO.

Yeah, I agree about the production. Listening to the first song I actually thought it was going to be really good as it sounded awesome. But yeah, lacking the songs and I fully agree about the ballads too. Just boring...

Tim has to go back to listening to hardcore crap again..

[TIM (2)]

Paramore - 'Brand new eyes' ; Well, looks like Tim is actually right with this one. I wouldn't say it's awful... it's just nothing. No truly dreadful songs, but on the other hand there's nothing great either. 'Turn it off' is definitely the best song off it and I like that one, but aside from that it's just a pretty boring CD. There is no doubt they have declined considerably with each CD.

 

Didnt even know they had a new one? And not even Paramore's hot lil fan Timbo likes it???

 

 

So Paramore and Damone have gone to craps..

Pretty much. I think this is slightly better than the new Damone CD, but I can't even say for sure. Both are infinitely underwhelming. Halestorm kicks both their asses.

Is the Paramore girl still some weeny lil emo lezo mole?

 

Yeah - though she's dating some loser in NEW FOUND GLORY I think so your chances of tapping her up are limited. She's good live though, even if the musicians behind her can't really play....

[Geoff]

Three CDs I had in the car this week for the first time too:

 

The Beautiful Mistake - 'Light a match for I deserve to burn' ; Seriously not bad, but very repetitive and by the end of it I felt like I'd just listened to one long song.

 

The Graduate - 'Andehonia' ; similar story here. Again, not bad but very samey. 'The city that reads' and one other song were highlights, the rest just moulded into one another.

 

The Jones Gang - 'Any day now' ; Promising (and heavier than I expected) start, but then the second song is a blatant filler, the third is a nice ballad and then after that it's mostly downhill. 'Six to midnight' and 'Red hot' were both decent, but not really good and the rest were mostly fillers. Yeah, I'd have to give this solid thumbs down.

[heaven&hell]

Winger - Karma

 

I think those that didn't like "IV" but loved "Pull" will enjoy this one much more. To my ears it's a mix between "Pull" and the deubt. Kip sounds great and Reb plays his ass off as usual. There are one or two fillers but overall a damn good album that I think will get better and better the more spins it gets.

[Geoff]

Kage - 'State of Mind' ; awesome stuff. I really dug this. Like a mix of Fifth Angel, Vice, Leatherwolf, Emergency and some of the heavier melodic hard rock/metal bands of the genre. Really good disc and I would love to own an original of this!

 

Kage - 'Shadow of faith' ; honestly, I thought this was shit. It was all over the place. I don't know if it's a proper 2nd album or just various outtakes and demos from the debut. It's a total mix of crap, imo.

 

Hurricane Cletis - 'Awake today' ; very good new modern rock/metal disc. I think a few people out there might light this. Good modern rock with a good, solid set of balls.

[Geoff]

Relient K - 'Forget and not slow down' ; okay, it's official. I hate these guys. Even though I liked their 2004 disc with a name no one can ever verbalise (which was probably the start of them pissing me off) they have since just annoyed me. For some reason I keep coming back, but I hope I don't anymore. This is just annoying reflective modern rock trying to carry on from what I guess are some of the more popular tracks off past CDs. But they just sound annoying. Crap CD.

 

Rydell & Quick - 'Rockoholic' ; average hard rock disc. In a year of a few pretty good discs this will get overlooked by everyone in the world, and sadly, rightly so.

 

Secondhand Serenade - 'Awake' ; there are two types of acoustic CDs. One where you get a nice song or two off it and think that's nice. And the other type is actually a collection of great songs which leaves you angry, thinking what could have been if they just plugged that shit in. This is the latter. Yes, the songs are good and it's a good listen - these guys have a great ear for melody and a hook. But all I can do through this whole thing is think how good it would have been if it was electric. I just don't have the patience for a full acoustic CD.

 

Secondhand Serenade - 'A twist in my story' ; Thankfully they electrified this one (slightly, and barely at times), but I don't think they brought songs quite as good as the debut. I noticed these guys have been on the radio with their massive hit 'Fall for you', which I actually didn't mind when I heard it on radio. This CD is good. I think the songs are better on the last one, though.

 

Shyforshy - 'So in time' ; Not bad at all. Trying their hand at a Saosin-style disc, these guys sound pretty good. And it's not just Saosin - these guys sound like a million modern rock bands, but thankfully the better ones. I'll need a few more spins to see if it sticks, but good first impression.

 

Silverline - 'Start to believe' ; wow, very nice EP. A must-watch band as far as I'm concerned. Throw in a bit of Saosin (again), Search The City, Anberlin etc. These guys have a good sound, one that appeals to me a lot. Easily the best of this bunch.

[phaffas]

Relient K ; okay, it's official. I hate these guys.

 

 

Best thing youve ever said!

[phaffas]

Salute - Toy Soldier

 

Liking this! Bad description is like a mix of Shakra, and recent Casanova.

[Swazi]

CONSTANCIA - Lost and Gone

 

I really enjoyed this new release. Here is quite a good and balanced review:

 

Review: Constancia

[heaven&hell]

Winger - Karma

 

I think those that didn't like "IV" but loved "Pull" will enjoy this one much more. To my ears it's a mix between "Pull" and the deubt. Kip sounds great and Reb plays his ass off as usual. There are one or two fillers but overall a damn good album that I think will get better and better the more spins it gets.

 

After spinning this one again the only filler is the jazzy instrumental bonus track that was wrote by Rod.

This cd is exceptional IMO and has some of Reb's best guitar playing yet.

[Geoff]

Vaeda - 'Course of nature' ; Man the 2nd song on this is excellent. I want to say it's worth the price alone and as I paid less than $5 for it I can, but the rest is pretty bad.

 

UZI - 'Madhouse' ; I admit that I do prefer releases like this to be in chronological order so that the production/sound has some kind of flow. The way that different tracks from different eras and recording sessions are mixed around is a bit of a downer, but the songs are what's most important and this is one of the better Eonian discs. Good kick-ass hard rock.

 

Wakefield - 'American Made' ; I was expecting this to be pretty good, almost on par with SR-71. Not even remotely close. It's okay, but nowhere near anything like SR-71.